CAMDEN — Preble Shawnee’s volleyball team pushed Franklin-Monroe to five sets, but came up short 25-10, 17-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13 on Tuesday, Sept. 10.

Brody Rike, the Arrows first-year coach, said his team put up one its better efforts this season during the match.

”The toughest part with tonight was it was probably the best we’ve played in a losing effort,” he said. “Franklin Monroe is a very similar team to us. They fought a little harder than we did tonight. But the biggest thing was we’re still really beating ourselves in long matches like that. We have been our biggest opponent this season. If we can figure out how to beat us, overcome some of these mental hurdles, I think we’ll see a lot more success this season.”

With the loss Shawnee falls to 5-5 overall and 1-3 in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference. F-M moves to 3-0 in the WOAC and 5-4 overall with the win.

For Shawnee, Sallie Montgomery led the way with 13 kills and 15 assists. Macy Price added nine kills and Caylee Hatmaker added eight.

Ally Rike and Emily Shields each had five service aces.

”Sallie Montgomery had probably her best night of the season. We’re starting to land a lot more attacks. I wish I could say we turned a corner, but we didn’t, because we can’t figure out how to win these matches,” Coach Rike said. “But that’s a pretty good team we played tonight that’ll finish with the winning season. So, it’s tough to lose. We’ve lost matches like this this season before, and especially when we see signs of progress.”

Rike said his team continues to improve, but needs to figure out how to win close matches.

”Overall, we’re passing a lot better. So, it’s a bummer, because we look at the numbers, it’s probably going to go down our best night, or one of our best nights, but we’re still just not finishing, not playing good enough to win,” he said. “Again, it’s tough when we lose, but it’s still a night of progress for us, and we’re hopeful we’re going to pull out some of these wins in the near future.”

Shawnee is scheduled to play at Brookville on Monday, Sept. 16 and will host Tri-County North on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.